After my initial disappointment and mid-game thrills with Uncharted 4, I completed the game. Having let the experience sit for a couple of weeks and allowing the adrenaline to fade, I can say without exaggeration:

Best. Game. Ever.

I’ve never experienced a better meshing of character, story, setting and gameplay. Others have come close and even surpassed it in one or more areas. “Mass Effect” had greater depth, but the ending marred the experience. The “BioShock” games brought the drama, but lacked the longevity and depth. Lara Croft may be responsible for some great experiences, but failed to ever show any real growth as a character.

This brought everything together.

[Spoilers Ahead]

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After my initial disappointment with Uncharted 4’s gi-freakin’-normous day one patch, I was actually able to play it. Since Tuesday, I’ve been able to put something over ten hours into the title and have reached Chapter 12 (of 22). Yes, I’m a 45 year-old man who took a vacation day from work to play a video game. I’m a growed-up and I wanna find pirate treasure, dammit!

In a fit of hubris, having earned Platinum trophies for the three previous games, I decided to start the game on “Crushing” difficulty. Having spent the last two hours failing to progress, I’m beginning to feel that this may have been a mistake.

[Spoilers Ahead]

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Like many others, I took delivery of Uncharted 4 today. I got home from work, unpacked the very impressive Nathan Drake collectible statue, took a picture or two and sat down to dinner.

The collector’s set is very large, but rather sparse. The statue is the centerpiece and, at over a foot tall, towers over similar pack-ins from other games. The game, in a steel case, a small hardcover art book, some stickers and a small load of downloadable multi-player goodies are also included. It pales in comparison to the cornucopia of trinkets in the Uncharted 3 collector’s editions, but hey, it is a very impressive statue!

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